Few of the singular moments in American history have been as contentious, or more cloaked in mystery, than the notorious Dahlgren Affair, which transpired in the spring of 1864.

Embroiled in three long years of war, Americans North and South may never quite have realized a botched raid on Richmond, Va., ultimately may have contributed to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

On March 2, 1864, Union Army Col. Ulric Dahlgren was killed outside of the Confederate capital, on a daring but horribly bungled attempt to ostensibly free thousands of Union prisoners of war, held in an old Richmond warehouse and at swampy Belle Isle prison, on an island in the James River.

Most of the blame for the raid’s failure has been placed at the feet of its planner, Union Army Brig. Gen. Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, whose poor planning and shoddy execution of the raid ended in failure and a morale boost for the Confederacy.

Tales of starving Union prisoners had prodded Lincoln to personally authorize the raid.

Dahlgren was just 21, having lost a leg after the Battle of Gettysburg. Being the son of Rear Adm. John Dahlgren — a friend of Lincoln — the young colonel was made a deputy under Kilpatrick and given command of a column of cavalry charged with penetrating Richmond’s defenses, causing chaos among the Rebels and freeing Union prisoners.

Nothing went as planned on the ill-fated raid, as a second cavalry column under Kilpatrick met stiff Confederate resistance. Despite having over 3,000 troopers, Kilpatrick lost a skirmish with Confederate militia and fled, abandoning support for Dahlgren’s 460-man column and leaving him to history’s fate.

Most of the command made it back to Union lines, but Dahlgren and 100 of his men were ambushed and the young colonel was shot dead.

This story would have been a tiny, unsuccessful historical footnote, except for a still-debated-to-this-day detail: 13-year-old Confederate militiaman William Littlepage searched Dahlgren’s body and found two folded documents and a pocket notebook.

Turning over the find to his officer, Capt. Edward Halbach, the Confederates were astonished to discover what the papers contained.

“We hope to release the prisoners from Belle Island first and having seen them fairly started, we will cross the James River into Richmond, destroying the bridges after us and exhorting the released prisoners to destroy and burn the hateful city and do not allow the Rebel leader (Jefferson) Davis and his traitorous crew to escape.”

The signed orders on Union Army stationary for a plot to assassinate Davis ended with “and once in the city it must be destroyed and Jeff Davis and Cabinet killed.”

The documents were passed up the chain of command, eventually to the Confederate president, who had his War Department disperse the scheme to Southern newspapers, who published the plot as evidence of Union barbarism.

Lincoln himself was accused of secretly approving the plot, while Northern papers denounced the documents as forgeries designed to weaken the Union war effort.

For many years, historians and scholars have debated the authenticity of the Dahlgren papers and the raid. Greatly fueling the controversy was the fact Union Secretary of War Edwin Stanton intentionally destroyed the re-captured papers in November 1865, six months after Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox.

Surviving records only include transcripts of the documents, and photographs of them provided by Lee to Union Maj. Gen. George Meade for him to investigate after the failed raid.

Gen. Kilpatrick was questioned by Meade about the Dahlgren papers, and Kilpatrick said they were genuine, but claimed they were doctored by the Confederates, denying any plot to kill Jefferson Davis or other high-ranking Confederate government officials.

Kilpatrick rather conveniently placed blame solely on Dahlgren, whose death prevented him from presenting his side of the affair.

Later, Gen. Meade confided to his wife that “Kilpatrick’s reputation, and collateral evidence in my possession, rather go against this theory” that Dahlgren alone devised the conspiracy.

Historical evidence since has substantially determined the documents in fact were authentic, and a plot did exist to assassinate Davis and burn Richmond.

Theories abound as to the ramifications of a plot to kill Davis. One of the more prevalent beliefs, and one which I think bears considerable weight, holds that the Dahlgren papers’ discovery instigated the chain of events that helped stir passions in the South for an assassination attempt on Abraham Lincoln.

And, in fact, the Dahlgren Affair has been traced back to John Wilkes Booth being personally outraged at the Dahlgren papers. History shows his successful conspiracy resulted in the assassination of the 16th president of the United States in Ford’s Theatre.

This chapter in American history may well remain as cloudy and unsettled as assassination theories of another U.S. president in Dallas — 98 years later.



Christy is news editor at the Enid News & Eagle and may be reached at davidc@enidnews.com.